(cc) by-sa shaz wildcat/flickrWith the Guardian reporting that ITV has suggested, as one of the radical solution for the future of Britain commercial broadcasting, a merger with Channel 4 and Five, it's a good time to ask what that would mean for digital content in the UK.

The emergence of a second 'super-broadcaster' to rival the BBC might, on the face of it, seem like a great opportunity for a kick-start to digital content efforts on behalf of the commercial sector, which have lagged somewhat behind the BBC and, in some ways, behind the terrestrials' counterparts in the US. With the economies of scale that would come with centralising television operations into a single unit, we might well see capacity opening up for new ventures, and new opportunities for innovation to flourish. We've seen with the effort put in towards Kangaroo the thirst for sharing between traditional rivals in the online sphere, and an eagerness to pool new media resources at a time of huge competition with international organisations (principally Apple, with iTunes), so that they do not fall behind.

On the other hand, the biggest push at these three companies towards truly interesting digital content has not come as you might expect from ITV (with its clout and mega-budgets), but from C4 - in the past with ventures such as FourDocs and 4oD, and into the future with 4iP (Channel 4 Innovations for the People). Channel 4 has always had an outlook that aims to shake up the status quo, and deliver next year's content today, and there must be huge caution at any changes whose major impact would be to reduce the number of 'different-thinkers', rather than, say, altering the identities of the channels (which one imagines will remain largely the same). With ITV making relatively modest forays into the digital sphere, and Five lagging behind both, it's hugely important that the right people ended up in change of any inevitable reorganisation.

One possibility in the proposal - that Channel 4 should become a wholly Public Service Broadcaster, no longer funded by advertising - could free the network up to deliver excellence in its online offering without the constant need to chase chase commercial profitability. But it's just as likely that such a change would include a narrowing of C4's remit, and we would see the brand limited to television broadcasting, with a single merged digital unit reporting directly into the mega-broadcasting HQ. It should also be noted that ITV doesn't exactly have a friendly reputation when it comes to Public Service Broadcasting, and tend to negotiate reductions in the PSB requirements at every opportunity.

With a number of major stakeholders seemingly favouring the option (in respect of Channel 4) of some sort of a tie-up between BBC Worldwide and C4, and the claim that neither C4 nor Five were consulted, this proposal doesn't currently have great odds of being put into practice. But it's still worth following, if only for the insights into what ITV in general, and Michael Grade in particular, have in mind for the future.